Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Pastors on church activities that might contribute to wellbeing

Welcome back! I am glad you are here. This is a third in a series of blogs discussing surveys performed by Teleios of pastors who graduated from conservative seminaries (Masters, Denver and Westminster). The first two surveys covered pastors’ adherence to biblical teaching and the influence of societal pressure on their beliefs posted on Apr 8, 2015 and May 13, 2015, respectively. Today is the third topic regarding what aspects of church life influence the wellbeing of attendees?
             Personal wellbeing has been frequently studied in recent years as a general indicator of an individual’s mental and physical health (1-5). Although variously defined, wellbeing might be considered as is a person’s emotional and cognitive evaluations of their lives, including happiness, peace, fulfillment and life satisfaction (6). A number of factors may contribute to wellbeing including mental, physical and financial prosperity, socialization, marriage and a positive relationship with God (1,2,7-13).
Church attendance also has been demonstrated to be associated with improved wellbeing not only as a general parameter, but also with increasing frequency of attendance (1,2). Potential causes of this finding are not specifically known. Therefore, we surveyed pastors to learn what they perceive as contributes to wellbeing in their church. Teleios sent the survey to 976 pastors of whom 105 (11%) responded.
Our study found that overwhelmingly pastors believed the experiences of their congregation as positive to very positive, in all typical areas of church life. (Please see table for partial results). Those activities that showed the greatest ‘very positive’ responses were generally spiritual in nature including: praise, prayer, sermons, hearing the gospel and baptisms. Those that demonstrated the lowest ‘very positive’ answers were liturgical readings, amount of time spent at church, social structure within the church, Sunday school and children’s programs. Consequently, items not specifically discussed in Scripture, and potentially more rigid in design, potentially might aide wellbeing less although necessary they may be necessary at some level.
Why would church attendance help wellbeing? We do not know precisely, but potential causes could be from subordination of self-interests to those of a greater being (so personal problems are considered less onerous), social support, adoption of healthy practices through church emphasis on respect for the body, relief from anxiety through prayer and the discipline of gratitude (14-21).
In summary, our study suggested that church attendance, and especially the spiritually based activities, may contribute to wellbeing. These factors that help explain findings from prior studies that have shown church attendance having a positive influence on wellbeing.
Thanks for reading my blog. Join us next week as we continue our investigation of how the Bible might benefit personal wellbeing.

Table: Percent of Bible believing pastors indicating that a church activity would have a very positive response on wellbeing
Responses
Percent
Praise (including musical worship)
58
55%
Prayer
59
56%
Liturgical readings
6
6%
Sermons
75
71%
Hearing the gospel explained
67
64%
Amount of church responsibility by members
32
30%
Baptismal services
59
56%
Celebration of communion
49
47%
Amount of time spent at church weekly
18
17%
Socializing with other worshipers
42
40%
Social structure within your church
21
20%
Children’s programs
31
30%
Small groups
41
39%
Sunday school
23
22%

How does church best help your wellbeing? To participate in our latest poll question - please visit our website at http://teleiosresearch.com/#anchorpoll

WC Stewart

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  2. MacIlvaine WR, Nelson LA, Stewart JA, et al. (2013). Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract, 19: 251-5.
  3. Stewart WC, Adams MP, Stewart JA, et al. (2013). Review of clinical medicine and religious practice. J Relig Health, 52: 91-106.
  4. Cotton S, Levine E, Fitzpatrick C, et al. (1999). Exploring the relationships among spiritual well-being, quality of life, and psychological adjustment in women with breast cancer. Psychooncology,8:429-38.
  5. Reed P. (1987). Spirituality and well-being in terminally ill hospitalized adults. Res Nurs Health, 10:335-44.
  6. Diener E, Oishi S, Lucas RE (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annu Rev Psychol, 54: 403-25.
  7. Diener E, Ng W, Harter J, et al. (2010). Wealth and happiness across the world: material prosperity predicts life evaluation, whereas psychosocial prosperity predicts positive feeling. J Pers Social Psychol, 99:52-61.
  8. Penedo FJ, Dahn JR (2005). Exercise and well-being: a review of mental and physical health benefits associated with physical activity. Curr Opin Psychiatry, 18: 189-93.
  9. Horwitz AV (1996). Becoming married and mental health: A longitudinal study of a cohort of young adults. J Marr Fam, 58:895-907.
  10. Marks NF, Lambert JD (1998). Marital status continuity and change among young and midlife adults longitudinal effects on psychological well-being. J Fam Issues, 19:652-86.
  11. Lillard LA, Waite LJ (1995). 'Til death do us part: Marital disruption and mortality. Am J Sociol, 100:1131-56.
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  15. Krause N (2010). Church-Based Emotional Support And Self-Forgiveness in Late Life. Rev Relig Res, 52:72-89.
  16. van Olphen J, Schulz A, Israel B, et al. (2003). Religious involvement, social support, and health among African-American women on the east side of Detroit. J Gen Intern Med, 18: 549-57.
  17. Davis DT, Bustamante A, Brown CP, et al. (1994). The urban church and cancer control: a source of social influence in minority communities. Public Health Rep, 109: 500–6.
  18. Eng E, Hatch JW (1991). Networking between agencies and black churches: The lay health advisor model. Pre Hum Serv, 10:123–46.
  19. Whooley MA, Boyd AL, Gardin JM, et al. (2002). Religious involvement and cigarette smoking in young adults: the CARDIA study. Arch Intern Med, 162: 1604–10.
  20. Stanley MA, Bush AL, Camp ME, et al. (2011). Older adults' preferences for religion/spirituality in treatment for anxiety and depression. Aging Ment Health, 15: 334-43.
  21. Inzlicht M, Tullett AM (2010). Reflecting on God: religious primes can reduce neurophysiological response to errors. Psychol Sci, 21: 1184-90.


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